


Band Practice

by naivephilosopher



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Post-Canon, Post-Game, Spoilers, maebea, maybe its maebea-line, party barn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-04
Updated: 2017-03-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 08:32:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10081550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naivephilosopher/pseuds/naivephilosopher
Summary: Band practice is pretty short and so is this one-off.





	

**Author's Note:**

> First post on here because I _really_ liked Night in the Woods. 
> 
> I would have spent more time on this, but I didn't have it to spend. If that just ain't the way, though.

Another one of those cold nights found itself over Possum Springs. The sky was a pretty violet. Some of the brighter stars poked their heads out to say hello to any who wandered the night streets. It was brisk but tranquil.

Mae hadn’t found any sense of normal life again quite yet. Her expectations always lead her back to how things were during school, and for the most part, it was pretty normal. Mom was Mom, Dad was Dad, and life was almost what it was before, except there was no school. The headaches were a thing too. She hadn’t sorted that out —and whether she would bother with it or not was still flat out undecided on her part. Still, even though the days were the same, and she still had her friends, there was a different feeling to it all. It was like an invisible tension that carried in the air. It made everything different.

Even the walk from her house to band practice was off. New buildings, new people, and a new air of desperation that she hadn’t well noticed as a kid all struck her. In all honesty, it was tiring and draining, like college.

Band practice today, though. Something that usually was pretty fun. Mae made her way to the hang out and, per the norm, was the last one there.

Bea was at her laptop, setting up the drums for the song, no doubt. Gregg and Angus were standing next to each other, looking adorable as ever.

“Guess who’s here!” Mae called in a sing-songy voice.

“It’s the Queen of the bass!” Gregg shouted. He waved his arms in the air, nearly smacking Angus, who hardly flinched. This was normal.

“Queen. Sure, that’s the word. Our Bass Queen Mae.” Bea said, her tone carrying a familiar sense of sarcasm.

“That’s right, bow to me. I am your queen now!” She said, placing one arm across her chest, “ As my first decree, I say that all—”

“Whoa, now hold on there, Bass Queen,” Bea interrupted, “you have to be sure this decree is bass related. You aren’t just Queen of the Band now.”

“You dare underestimate my ability to climb the political ladder?” She challenged.

“Well, yeah, since you’re only bass queen by default.” Said Bea, coldly.

There was a moment of silence before Mae spoke up again, “You have a point there.”

With greetings out of the way, Gregg declared that they were ready to get going.

“Weird Autumn, anyone?” He asked. Of course, everyone knew it was less a request than a declaration, so everyone nodded.

“I mean, at least it’s not a dry run for me this time.” Said Mae.

With that, everyone jumped into the song. Mae’s fluffy cat paws didn’t make it easy to hold a pick or finger the frets, but she managed since she never had to play chords. How Gregg managed was still a mystery to her. She’d have to ask him about that sometime.

Cool down after the song was quiet. Funny, they would meet up every week for about ten minutes to play one song and then head home. Mae took a second to ponder this and figured it was something worth bringing up.

“So you know how we meet up here every so often to play a song and then just, stop?” She asked.

“Well, yeah, what about it?” Asked Bea in reply.

“We could play more than one song.” Said Mae.

“Could we?” Gregg asked.

“I mean, why not?” Mae replied.

“Mae, the rest of us have jobs, things we have to do besides this. It’s a miracle we even have ten minutes for this every now and then.” Somehow, Mae knew this would be Bea’s response.

“Well, I mean, what’s just ten more minutes, right?” Mae asked, looking around the room. After a moment of silence passed and no one had begun to reply, Mae shrugged and said, “Fine, I get it. You guys have other things to do. It’s no biggie.” It hurt, sorta, in a lot of different ways. By now, though, it was something she was used to.

Gregg seemed like he was about to say something, but apparently decided not to. He and Angus had a date night planned, so they went off to that. Mae waited for Bea to leave too, She kinda wanted to sit in the Party Barn on her lonesome for a while. Bea, however, remained. She was doing something on her laptop, which piqued Mae’s curiosity. A lot of clicking and very little typing by the sounds of it. Mae knew better than to try sneaking a peak, that only ever ended in disappointment on someone’s behalf.

“What’cha doing there, Bea?” She asked instead.

Bea went on with what she was doing, seemingly paying Mae no mind. This only made Mae more interested, and soon the impulse to peak over her friend’s shoulder beat out what little self control she had. Moving as slowly and quietly as she could, she made her way over behind the speakers. Sneaking up behind a monocular person, such as Bea, posed some special challenges, but luckily she knew exactly where her friend’s blind spot was.

From behind the pile of speakers and amps, Mae peered at the screen of Bea’s laptop. It looked like the sound editing software she used to set up the drums and bass for band practice. She was going back and forth between a bunch of different windows, moving bars around and changing their sizes. Mae didn’t understand what was going on in the slightest. It looked highly technical.

“You know, I know you’re back there.” Bea said out of nowhere, keeping her eyes on the computer screen.

Mae crouched behind the larger amp saying “N-no I’m not.”

“You aren’t as quiet as you think.” Said Bea.

“Aw, damn,” Said Mae, “I could have sworn I was being quiet.”

“You were, I just have good ears. Plus, you were giggling the whole time.”

That was probably true; Mae had a tendency to giggle without noticing.

“It was kinda cute.” Bea said.

“D’aaaw, you stop it.” Mae said, probably blushing behind her fur.

Bea clicked a few more times on the screen and turned her head to the side a bit so that she was looking toward Mae, “There, it’s finished.”

“What’s finished?” Mae asked, tilting her head to the side.

“I put the Gregg and Angus’ parts into the the computer for Die Anywhere Else.” She said.

“Wait, why would you do that?” Asked Mae. She was even more confused now, “Gregg’s the one who schedules band practice, and I’m sure he wouldn’t come without Angus . . .”

“Well, I—”

“And how did you get that done so quickly?” Mae interrupted.

“I’ve been working on it for a while now, Mae.” She answered.

“Oh.” Mae replied.

“As for the first question, uhhhh . . .” She fumbled on her words.

Mae waited for her answer.

“You know how you said we should play more songs, right?” She asked and continued before Mae could answer, “Well, I figured the same thing a while ago, after you came back and we started hanging out again and . . .” Bea lost her words again.

Mae’s eyes grew wide, and she stepped out from behind the speakers, “AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” She squealed in delight.

Bea smiled, “You know, I could have just let you guys borrow the laptop, right? I only come to these things because it’s fun to watch everyone else get into it. It also reminds me of the old days, you know?”

“Oh, I know how you feel. But, like, why just me?” Mae asked.

“I kinda like watching you play, Mae. You get really into it.” She was looking at the laptop screen again, pretending to edit the song.

Mae’s eyes began to tear up, “You really mean that Bea?”

“Yeah.” She responded.

“Soooo . . . One more song?” Mae asked.

“I think I got another one or two in me, yeah.” Bea said.

Mae went to grab her bass and stood in front of Bea again. She looked at Bea as if to say she was ready.

“Hit me, Computer Queen.” She said

“Take it away, Bass Queen!” Bea said.

She started the music, and the Party Barn heard the second song of the night: A duet performance by the Queens of Computer and Bass.


End file.
